
^ 





( . 

V 



y^5 



DORMITORY AND CLUB LIFE 
and THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO 
UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION 



CORRESPONDENCE WITH PRESIDENT 
LOWELL CONCERNING A FORMER 
SUGGESTION FOR A HARVARD- 
BOSTON TECH. AGREEMENT 

ALSO 

HIGHER EDUCATION AND 
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY 
SCHOOL ORGANIZATIONS 



By H. B. KIPPER. Ph. D. 



Harvard men who are studying their university, 
and hoping to be able to aid it, unconsciously wish to 
transplant to it the strength of Oxford and Cambridge, 
the strength of German science and French art, the 
beauty of the smaller American college, and at the 
same time to retain for it its own magnificent power 
developed during the last three centuries of building. 



COPYRIGHT 1920 
By H. B. KIPPER 



^^^27/920 ©C1A56099' 



r^(pOl 



'-'^r^s 



Within the last few years it has been suggested, at 
least on several different occasions known to the 
writer, that Harvard University, or perhaps more cor- 
rectly Harvard College, should be divided into a num- 
ber of smaller colleges. The suggestion has also been 
made, and very nearly acted upon, that the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology should be united with 
Harvard, or at least should become more closely affili- 
ated with the latter institution. A certain degree of 
opinion against the affiliation was expressed by a very 
considerable number of undergraduates and graduates 
of both institutions. This was finally, however, large- 
ly overcome and negotiations between the two institu- 
tions entered into with one of the above ends in view. 
Unfortunately, however, it was determined that the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology would be un- 
able to sell the land, on which the larger portion of 
its educational buildings were situated, for commer- 
cial or residential purposes. Since it was felt that pro- 
pinquity was essential for any true affiliation between 
these two institutions further negotiations were not 
attempted. 

The writer wishes to offer a concrete plan based on 
the former suggestion that Harvard be separated into 
a number of smaller colleges, and also a possible meth- 
od of procedure by which a closer unity between Har- 
vard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
might be countenanced. He does this, moreover, in 
the belief that the community in which these institu- 
tions are situated should be willing to aid in the latter 
undertaking. 

In addition to extending the advantage gained 
from sports from a small percentage to all students, 
by a division of the university into a number of col- 
leges, another, perhaps greater one, might be looked 
for. Between the smaller American college and the 
larger university one must concede to the smaller in- 
stitution the advantage gained by the closer mingling 
of all classes of students with one another. During 
the eighties, or at about the period of President Roose- 
velt's graduation, this asset was still a true and valua- 
ble one to the two hundred students, more or less, in 
a single class. But this asset has been gradually 
dwindling with the increase in size of each successive 
class and nothing can rehabilitate it so perfectly as the 
division of the classes into smaller groups, which are 



determined not merely by social distinctions, but em- 
brace in themselves, in each group or smaller college, 
every type of student character. 

Would not the final outcome of this relationship, if 
each college were to determine a club and social life 
centered about a division of arts, science, or literature, 
tend toward the development of arts and science to a 
greater degree even than any system now in vogue 
among the European universities? lAssociative life 
not determined by mere social bonds is purposeful and 
stimulative to achievement and it was its fullest ex- 
istence that was productive of the European Renais- 
sance. In literature, arts or sciences it is the gradu- 
ally upreared subconscious foundation which allows 
one to excell his fellows of a period, and it is the build- 
ing of this subconscious element which is so woefully 
lacking, with the exception possibly of literature, in 
even our older American universities. 

In Harvard undergraduate life competition in 
studies is too potent among a large number of men, 
among another, perhaps larger group, it is too little so. 
With this first class, or so-called university grinds, and 
also with a large number of students trained in techni- 
cal schools, the subject masters the man, not the man 
the subject. The student in fact becomes too largely 
a mechanical part of his learning. With the second 
class of college men studies are mere play, the health- 
ly competitive stimulus formerly found in classical 
work does not prevail. 

Reinstate the healthful environment of competi- 
tion (limited, however, most carefully in its quantita- 
tive nature) and one interwoven with a full under- 
graduate, social or club life among men who are going 
to follow the same life work, and we shall regain all 
the strength and beauty which no man can help but 
feel was attributable to the older classical work, and 
perhaps a little more, for we shall have the stimulus of 
life beyond the college walls. 

If we limit a man's competitive work and make 
half of his courses elective shall we not get the true 
benefits of the elective system combined with the stim- 
ulating effect of a large number of men competing in 
a definite work throughout their course? These bene- 
fits, the writer believes, formed the true foundation of 
the classical course. He believes that it was not 



the classical learning, but the healthy environment 
surrounding it, that still upholds this course with 
many. 

Let us very briefly view possible physical changes 
which Harvard should have to undergo to make the 
division considered truly advantageous. 

The site on which the present Technology buildings 
stand is one which the City of Boston might well be 
proud of for its city hall. If the site were used for this 
purpose certainly not more than one-third of the 
ground would have to be built upon. Under these con- 
ditions the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
could dispose of its holdings and what more admirable 
location could be found for the Technology than the 
other side of the Charles River on the unoccupied 
ground lying east of Soldiers' Field. Between the 
Charles and Massachusetts Avenue could be placed any 
necessary new dormitories. 

A plan for one of these dormitories, which in itself 
should tend toward the success of the division of the 
university into smaller colleges, might comprehend a 
large quadrangle containing the bedrooms and studies, 
and each side of which might be given to a class. An 
inner quadrangle would contain four large class com- 
mon rooms and as many class dining rooms. In the 
center might be placed a large swimming tank for the 
use of all four classes, and on the second floor of the 
inner quadrangle or wings, there should be placed five 
sets of club rooms as follows: 

The Ancient and Modern Languages Clubs. 
The Clubs of the Arts and Music. 
The Clubs of History, Government, Economics, 
Business Service and Law. 

The Clubs of the Natural Sciences, Mathemat- 
ics and Philosophy. 

The Engineering Clubs. 

The freshmen dormitory will get men together but 
these men should not then in their later college years 
^e allowed to go off and form little Utopian groups by 
themselves. -They must meet all men in associative 
life throughout their college years to attain the depth 
of character acquired by contact with all types of men 
and to maintain the fullest competitive scholarship. 

The dormitory described, the writer believes, rep- 
resents an organic structure capable of maintaining 



such competition to its fullest extent during the under- 
graduate life. The fault with most Utopian systems 
is that they tend too greatly to eliminate competition. 
Is it not possible that therein lies the one fault with 
our present undergraduate life at Harvard ? We must 
wish always to make this undergraduate life as beauti- 
ful as possible, but also to make the competition in 
scholarship associated with it as strong as possible. 

If in addition to our present social clubs we devel- 
oped a number of social clubs around each division of 
learning, Harvard would be better for their existence 
and their members would gain in love for the respec- 
tive subjects in which their main work might lie. The 
men studying literature, history or any other subject 
which they have chosen as their main one, should 
meet one another more frequently outside of the class 
room. 

Harvard has recently adopted a set of rules gov- 
erning the choice of studies which will no doubt be 
productive of many of the results expected from them, 
but if she wishes to develop the highest scholarship 
among all classes of men she must develop an under 
graduate environment to accomplish this. The class 
common rooms should do more toward bringing all 
class-mates together, and, as these rooms would in a 
way remain common to the class men after gradua- 
tion, to keep them together than any other factor, 
probably, which could at present be introduced into 
college life. This factor, moreover, in conjunction 
with the smaller club rooms should greatly aid com- 
petitive scholarship. 

Harvard men who are studying their university, 
and hoping to be able to aid it, unconsciously wish to 
transplant to it the strength of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, the strength of German science and French 
art, the beauty of the smaller American college, and 
at the same time to retain for it, its own magnificent 
power developed during the last three centuries of 
building. 

The dormitory described, in itself productive of as- 
sociative scholarship, should perhaps more than any 
gift which could be made to Harvard, tend to bring 
about the above result, and gain for the college the 
attributes which the above well-wisher of Harvard 
has postulated. 

6 



H 



n 



2 3^ 

? O- 5' 

T O IW. 

»■ 2 n 
-30 

M 3 3 

1> ° ^ 

i- o £. 

: 3 3 



9 o- 



s, 3 — 







CORRESPONDENCE 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CAMBRIDGE 

November 23, 1909. 

Dear Mr. Kipper: — , 

Thank you very much for your letter m regard to 
a reorganization of Harvard College. Problems of this 
kind have been fermenting in the minds of many of us 
for some years, but the solution is not wholly a simple 
one. Is it not true that one of the great advantages 
of the system of English colleges within the univer- 
sity is that those colleges are not devoted to particular 
subjects of study, but that each of them contains men 
of very varied interests ? One of the great advantages 
of these colleges is competition; and the intellectual 
competition depends to some extent on that very fact. 
Baliol wants to take more firsts in Greats, in History, 
etc., than other colleges. What you say about the ad- 
vantage of competition both in athletics and scholar- 
ship among these groups is exceedingly true. 

Thanking you very much for your letter, which is 
exceedingly interesting, I am, 

Very truly yours, 
(Signed) A. Lawrence Lowell. 

Milwaukee, Wise, January 19th, 1910. 

Dr. A. Lawrence Lowell, 

President, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Mass. 

Dear President: — 

In your reply to my short sketch dealing with the 
changes which it seems to me might be advantageous 
to bring about in the organization of Harvard Col- 
lege, I note with much interest your statements re- 
garding the intellectual competition among men in the 
various colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, and that 
you also question whether the varied interests of each 
college do not in themselves tend to foster intellectual 
pursuits. Is not one led to believe, however, that if 
men drawn from all stations of life, and comprising 
each group or college considered in my plan, were led 
to compete at least during a limited portion of their 
time in the same intellectual work, that a stimulus for 
intellectual strength and pleasure would be brought to 
bear on the individual even to a greater degree than 



by the English system? Although the aims of our 
civilization and the methods of its competition may be 
often narrow and sordid, is it not through the principle 
of competition that the world produces most of its 
great achievements? The university represents ar~\ 
body of men attempting to gain culture, knowledge and" 
the spirit of fair action toward fellow men. Though 
their aims may be very different than those in general 
which the world holds before us should for that reason 
the methods of attaining them be entirely altered? 
To-day true intellectual competition among the under- 
graduate body has very nearly ceased to exist and, as 
the competition in athletic sports, is confined to but a 
very small number of men. If a healthy competition 
in both intellectual pursuits and in sports is again 
rightly fostered it would, I believe, represent the 
greatest advantage that could be gained by Harvard 
today. 

The ideal regulations governing the elective courses 
which have been adopted by the University for next 
year's entering class should largely produce the above 
results, but should not one step more be taken and the 
men who choose their six or more courses from a cer- 
tain field of work be brought into the same dormitories 
and eating halls, and encouraged to compete in ath- 
letics and form their representative group or college 
teams. In other words, let there be built not mere 
freshmen dormitories but class dormitories and eating 
halls. Such halls and dormitories would rotate in their 
four year periods and serve as depositories for class 
trophies, and would always remain distinctive and 
filled with fellow associations during future class re- 
unions. Yours very truly, 

(Signed) H. B. Kipper. 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CAMBRIDGE 

January 22, 1910. 
Dear Mr. Kipper: — 

I agree with you entirely that a healthy competi- 
tion in intellectual pursuits is the greatest advantage 
to be gained by Harvard today. I have been trying to 
hammer on that for a number of years with unfortu- 
nately no very great response. 

8 



You seem to propose that the men who choose their 
six or more courses in a certain field should be brought 
into the same dormitories and eating halls, and then 
again, that there should be class dormitories and eat- 
ing halls. Are not those two things inconsistent? 

Very truly yours, 
(Signed) A. Lawrence Lowell. 
H. Brunswick Kipper, Esq. 

Milwaukee, Wise, February 16th, 1910. 

Dr. A. Lawrence Lowell, 

President, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Mass. 
Dear President: — 

From your letter of January 22nd I note with in- 
terest your remarks as to undergraduate competition, 
and also that you question whether two features of 
my plan for undergraduate dormitories are not incon- 
sistent with one another. 

I believe that I can explain away this seeming dis- 
crepancy, although I may state that I might well have 
inserted one more limiting adjective to the class dorm- 
itory which I mentioned in my last paragraph and 
called the same "Class Group Dormitory." When I 
spoke of this dormitory I had in mind that described 
by me in my communication to you of November 12th. 
If I say let there be built not mere university dormi- 
tories, but class dormitories, I believe that my mean- 
ing would be readily understood, and in the same sense 
I wish to bring out that not mere freshmen dormitor- 
ies should be built, but "Class Group Dormitories" in 
which the men are brought together for their under- 
graduate period and not alone for their freshmen year, 
and that those class-mates who choose their six or 
more courses from the same field be brought more in- 
timately to associate in dormitories and eating halls. 
Of course several "groups" of the same class might 
dwell in one dormitory, but the men in the same group 
or college should be brought together as far as possible. 

As you possibly remember in my original paper I 
brought out two general phases of college life, (1) 
The class subdivided into its groups, (2) The college 
also subdivided into groups — but four groups (one in 
each class) constituting the college. 



I have previously interchanged the words "Group" 
and "College" and assigned to them practically the 
same meaning and adopt the above nomenclature 
merely for the moment in an attempt to bring out the 
manner in which men of similar intellectual interests 
(whether freshmen or senior) should be brought to 
associate with one another and competition in all 
branches of college life made common among friends 
and close acquaintances. Competition among friends 
represents I believe, the finest training that can be 
instituted in any branch of activity. 

I beg to remain, 

Respectfully yours, 
(Signed) H. B. Kipper. 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CAMBRIDGE 

March 29, 1910. 
Dear Mr. Kipper: — 

Thank you very much . for your letter, with the 
plan of the class dormitories, which is certainly very 
interesting. I am very glad that you approve of the 
changes that we made in the elective system. 

Yours very truly, 
(Signed) A. Lawrence Lowell. 

H. Brunswick Kipper, Esq., 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 



10 



HIGHER EDUCATION 

In original as in any other form of productive labor 
it is economic concentration and the simplicity of 
organization that are fundamental constructive ele- 
ments. In America, unfortunately, there exists a 
curious adversity of opinion, bordering almost on 
fear, against a clear cut organization of public in- 
stitutions of learning. It seems to be felt that organ- 
ization stands too largely for the "cut_ and dried or 
mechanical" and therefore operates against true orig- 
inal productiveness. Non-organization, which unfort- 
unately too often is considered as having a positive 
bearing on originality, is the road that leads to chaotic 
wastefulness and non-productiveness, in original as 
well as any other form of mental labor. 



UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION 

Each undergraduate department to present: 
Six general foundational courses. 

Each graduate department to present: 
Six selected detailed courses. 
Six research courses. 

Example: Organization of the Chemical De- 
partment. 

Undergraduate Course: 

1. Freshman Chemistry, Physics, Mathemat- 

ics, Statics and Dynamics, Engineering. 

2. Qualitative and quantitative analysis. 

3. Organic and physical Chemistry. 

4. Industrial Chemistry: six divisions, each 

division to be given by a different profes- 
sor, who will thereby be kept in touch 
with his respective branch of chemical in- 
dustry. 
Steam, Electrical and Mechanical Engi- 
neering. 
(Equal period each year for elective courses.) 
Graduate Course: 

Six specialized courses — half commercial. 
Six research courses. 
One of the great dangers of our university educa- 
tion is its growing lack of economy, which is brought 
about by the constant addition of courses and the con- 

11 



stant increase of the students' time in pursuit of these 
specialized courses. Our eight year college medical 
school course could be reduced by from one to two 
years through an efficient and economic reorganiza- 
tion, with great advantage to the student. The Har- 
vard Law School has gained pre-eminence because of 
its careful and efficient selection of teachers, but more 
especially because of its remarkably efficient and econ- 
omic educational methods. 

The function of the University is to produce clear 
thinking, naturalness of character and intensity of 
purpose — in other words, to rear the social foundation 
of life and when specialization in some branch of 
knowledge has been pursued to establish a foundation 
from which to rear the material structure of life. 

The establishment of more normal equilibrium be- 
tween cultural and associated life and professional or 
specialized vocational work is most needed in our col- 
lege and university curiculum. Its more thorough es- 
tablishment should serve in the development of great- 
er social strength with its forceful and healthy bear- 
ing on our American business community. 

We at present find two distinct groups of men in 
our older universities — men guided by mere social or 
student approbation and those guided by respect for 
the success of the scholar. 

In the middle of the past century or when Emer- 
son, Longfellow and Newcomb were being graduated 
from our American colleges and universities, the two 
factors were at truer parity. 

The number of students in our universities has in- 
creased tremendously since the middle of the nine- 
teenth century, but the social conditions guiding their 
life has not proportionately changed and still remains 
in the embryonic state. 

In order to establish a healthy equilibrium between 
the cultural associative life and the specialized work 
of the student, the speaker a few years ago suggested 
the establishment of "Scholars' Clubs." Their organi- 
zation would embrace five general divisions, each of 
which in turn would be made up of a number of natur- 
ally dependent subdivisions. 

Science Clubs. 
Engineering Clubs. 

12 



Ancient and Modern Language Clubs. 

Clubs of History, Economics, Government and Law. 

Clubs of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. 

The student passing through his sophomore year 
with honors would be entitled to election as a junior 
member to one of the clubs, a senior graduating with 
honors to election as a regular member. Regular 
membership in addition would be open to members of 
the University faculty and holders of the Ph. D. de- 
gree from the university. Associative membership 
would be open to graduate students in the university 
holding the M. A. degree. 



PRIMARY EDUCATION 

If our primary educational system were standard- 
ized throughout the country and if it were made to 
give a thorough fundamental training its value would 
be greatly increased. 

We need no more fear that the standardization of 
education will bring about too great similarity than we 
need fear that the similarity of national life will make 
a people look too nearly alike. 

The American public school course is at present 
two and even three years behind, in the training se- 
cured, the courses of some European countries. The 
effectiveness of our American schools might be so in- 
creased that the graduates would lead by two and 
three years the graduates of any European school. It 
should be quite possible to double the efficiency of our 
public schools and with the proper physical and moral 
instruction probably even to treble and quadruple such 
efficiency. 

In its primary educational work our school system 
should embrace, in a six years' course: 
First four years Last two years 

Reading English and History 

Writing Geography 

Spelling Algebra 

Arithmetic One Modern Language 

Physical Development: one hour. 

The secondary school period, which should also 
cover six years, should include: 

13 



English, two hours. 

History, one hour. 

One modern language, two hours. 

Art, one hour. 

Mathematics, three hours. 

1. Geometry. 

2. Geometry. 

3. Trigonometry. 

4. Analytical Geometry. 

5. Calculus. 

6. Calculus. 
Science, three hours. 

1. Botany and Agriculture. 

2. Geology, Physical Geography and Economic 

Geology. 

3. Physics. 

4. Chemistry. 

5. Biology and Hygiene. 

6. Biology and Hygiene. 
Physical Development, one hour. 

The six year divisional periods of the primary and 
secondary system represent both the practical and the 
ideal. 

Our secondary educational period is too short. The 
German secondary educational period is too long. 

Science teaches qualitative thinking and in addi- 
tion should train hands, ears and eyes. Mathematics 
is productive of quantitative thinking. 

With the inculcation of the beautiful in achieve- 
ment through art on the youthful mind achievement in 
the beautiful becomes inherent to that mind. Such 
inherency of culture must be founded in the youthful 
mind, however, during its school course and before it 
enters the broader life of the college. 

All subjects should bear a direct proportionate re- 
lationship to their usefulness for future life. 

Let our country become dotted over with practical 
and business schools and let practical education gain 
its just share of rule in our universities, but above all) 
else let us keep our public school free from business or^ 
technical education. Once this phase of education be- 
conies a part of the general public school system, the 
majority of Americans are doomed to the life of 
coolies or to the life of machines. The public school 
system should be the foundation of our citizenship,'' 

14 




DDDDD IDi IDmmi 101 iDDam 

ammniDDDDanimi 

in 



DDD 



^ran^mnmmn^m 



ninmainiamain^ 



D DDPm n aama d annn 




High School 
Boys 



Gymnasium, tank, etc. 
for Boys 



Grammar School 
Girls and Boys 



Gymnasium, tank, etc., 
for Girls 



High School 

GlKLS 



but not our economic foundation. The latter should 
rest on technical, industrial, business and other spe- 
cialized schools as on our universities, but never on our 
primary educational system. 

The broad general mental training in our public 
school system should never to the slightest extent be 
negatived. To this should be coupled physical and 
moral training and the training of the girl to house- 
hold duties and the boy in protection of the national 
home. 

The speaker, it will be noted, has omitted Greek 
and Latin absolutely from his educational system. 

Greek and Latin were the keys which opened the 
doors of the culture of Greece and Rome to Northern 
Europe. Since the time of Shakespeare, of the 
Renaissance, etc., these doors have stood wide open 
and the possession of the keys signifies almost nothing 
in comparison with their former value. 



15 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
001 230 840 1 ^ 



y 



